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Michigan’s Adventure – Two Great Amusement Parks in One
This past Sunday I was able to have the opportunity to take my family to Michigan’s Adventure, an amusement park in Muskegon Michigan. This is a park that is run by Cedar Fair, the same company that runs parks that I grew up with such as Kings Island and Cedar Point. I grew up going to both of the latter parks, especially Cedar Point, so I was excited to be able to share an experience like this with my girls as they have not been to a park like this in the past.
In attending the day we were a bit concerned at first about the weather as we were told that there was at least a 50-60% chance of rain in the afternoon. When we arrived there was next to noone there (I think the weather may have scared some people off), which ended up being to our benefit which also meant there was next to no lines in the park all day on rides, and there were times on roller coasters when Diva-J and I jumped on the ride all by ourselves (talk about crazy).
The park is split into two parks, the amusement rides as well as the water rides, and I am pleased to say that we were able to try both, even with sporadic short bursts of rain that interrupted the afternoon.
We started the day with Amusement Rides, and I was happy to find that there were many rides that Diva-PJ could ride at the offset, even including some roller coasters, which she really wanted to ride. The park guide itself was a great help in letting you know how tall you needed to be to ride the rides. One tip that we learned from another guest was to visit the front of the park where you can reserve lockers to have your child get measured and get a band with their height listed as then they will not need to be measured for the most part for the rest of the day. There were a few times when they were still measured, but all-in-all, this cut back the number of times drastically.
This park has a number of amusement park rides for every type of thrill seeker. From the mild rides like swan boats to extreme roller coasters like Shivering Timbers, you can choose your poison for the day. Diva-J and I rode all of the roller coasters (5 in all) and some multiple times. The roughest ride for me was Shivering Timbers. While this definitely had the largest drops, you also get shook up on this wooden monstrosity. I ended up leaving with a bit of a headache, but Diva-J was asking for another ride even though it was raining when we got off the ride.
Above was the mad mouse and this had some harrowing turns but all in great fun! You can see on our faces how much fun we were having here.
After riding a ton of rides we were getting hungry and while there were a ton of places where we could have eaten, we were given the opportunity to try out the family grill which is almost like a large backyard BBQ with food like, hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, beans, dessert and a drink – and did I mention it was all you can eat. All of this was for about just less than $11/person for 6+ and about $5 for ages 3-6. The food was very good and though the line was long, it was worth the wait and it definitely filled my stomach.
After eating we decided to go over and try out Grand Rapids. We said to ourselves, how wet could we really get on one ride. Let me tell you, this was a naive sentiment and I wish that I had changed into my bathing suit prior to the ride because you definitely get soaked. Only a few minutes into this ride my daughter Diva-PJ and I went under the first of the waterfalls and there was not an inch of us that was not wet. Luckily most of us had bathing suits (all except my father-in-law), and after the ride we paid to get into the family dryer, but for only 3 minutes you really do not get four people that dry. Even though we got soaked we still had fun on the ride. After the fact we hear that my wife and mother-in-law were looking for quarters to try and fire off geysers at us, luckily they did not find any!
After getting soaked on this ride my daughters and I changed into our bathing suits to try out the water park. I went on a number of the rides, but my favorite had to have been the Funnel of Fear. This was an extra-fun ride that shot you down a HUGE funnel after coming down a very dark tube. Let me tell you, if you are coming out of the tube going backwards, you definitely are in for a surprise and a drop. The worst part of that ride was carrying the tube from bottom to top as the tubes are a bit heavy, but the payoff is VERY worth it. Diva-J went down a number of the other slides and had a blast in these as well, and who wouldn’t love the lazy river or the wave pool. This water park had a bit of everything!
My family had a great experience going to Michigan’s Adventure and for us, the combination of two parks in one was perfect. This park had a perfect amount of rides and we found that we were able to ride almost all of the rides during the day, and then we still had enough time to be able to go to the water park side of the park itself. WHile we could have used more time here we still had a ton of time and I know my kids would have spent even more time at this side of the park if we could have had more time, and if we had remembered to bring towels (you do need to remember this!). We are sold on this park and my kids are already asking when we can go back again. While I don’t know the answer to that, I will say that the price is pretty reasonable at only $29 for a one day pass. The price is even better if you get a 2-day pass or if you buy multiple tickets. They even offer a season pass for only $93.00. When you look at the prices of most Amusement Parks this is a steal, and if I lived closer I know that this would definitely be something that I would take advantage of! I highly recommend this park to all families – you and your whole family will have a blast together and you will leave wanting to come back for more!
See more pictures from our trip here – https://plus.google.com/photos/100572181234104788072/albums/5888013828881882113?authkey=CPLLvbmt4bqQpwE
All images were taken on the Samsung NX300
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Easily one of the funnest parks we’ve been to. I loved your post!
Thanks Rosey, we had a blast!